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Hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July
For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.
Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.
The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they’re infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won’t be able to connect to the Internet.
Most victims don’t even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.
Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers.
“We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because ... if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service,” said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. “The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get ‘page not found’ and think the Internet is broken.”
The DNS system is a network of servers that translates a web address into the numerical addresses that computers use. Victim computers were reprogrammed to use rogue DNS servers owned by the attackers. This allowed the attackers to redirect computers to fraudulent versions of any website.
The hackers earned profits from advertisements that appeared on websites that victims were tricked into visiting. The scam netted the hackers at least $14 million, according to the FBI. It also made thousands of computers reliant on the rogue servers for their Internet browsing.
To check and clean computers: http://www.dcwg.org


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Unilever is shutting its Birds Eye factory in Grimsby with the loss of 600 jobs as part of an attempt by the consumer goods giant to revive its struggling frozen food arm.
The move comes just months after Unilever unveiled a £60m initiative aimed at boosting declining sales of frozen food across Europe. Out went the Birds Eye seagull logo, and in came a red, teardrop-shaped motif, which it hoped would remind consumers that even frozen peas and chicken goujons started life outside the freezer.
The Anglo-Dutch group behind freezer favourites such as McCain's, Bernard Matthews and Findus, took the decision to shut down the Lincolnshire plant after failing to find a buyer.
It plans to contract out production of the Birds Eye ready-meals that Grimsby produced for third-party suppliers. It hopes the move will save it money and improve the rate at which it is able to invent new dishes, without which it will never halt the country's waning appetite for frozen foods.
James Hill, who heads Unilever's frozen food and ice cream division, said: "There is significant overcapacity in the meals industry and to be competitive you need to have large-scale, highly flexible facilities. Even if we had made large internal investment in the Grimsby plant we simply couldn't match the scale and innovation capabilities already available from third parties."
The group has two other Birds Eye factories, in Hull and Lowestoft, neither of which are affected by yesterday's announcement. The Grimsby factory, which has made Birds Eye meals since 1946, will shut in the first quarter of next year.
Some 450 of the 600 jobs were part time, but the closure will hit 7 per cent of Grimsby's 91,000 population. The decline of the North Sea fishing industry has forced the historical fishing port to reinvent itself as a food processing centre. Unilever stopped making fish fingers in Grimsby five years ago.
Unilever launched a £25m advertising campaign in July aimed at giving the battered fish finger a healthier image. Its new ranges include fish and vegetables for steaming as well as fishmeals made from hoki, a sustainable alternative to cod. Cap'n Birds Eye, its infamous old sea dog of a figurehead, was brought out of retirement two years ago to promote Birds Eye's meals, after a younger model failed to do the trick.Reuse content

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Petco recalls pet food bowls after radioactive bowls found in Chicago store
Petco is coordinationg a recall on pet food bowls with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency after several stainless steel bowls were found contaminated with low levels of a radioactive material.
Herald News reports that two contaminated bowls were discovered on Friday by state inspectors at a Petco store in Clybourn, Chicago, according to a release from the IEMA.
The bowls contained traces of cobalt-60, the statement said, but the highest radiation level detect was so low that holding one of the bowl for about six and a half days would be equivalent to an x-ray scan.
“These bowls do not pose an immediate health risk, but we always want to prevent unnecessary exposure to radiation,” said IEMA Director Jonathon Monken in a statement.
Petco has indicated that all bowls have been removed from store shelves and have been isolated so that they pose no risk to customers or store employees. IEMA inspectors also will conduct inspections at those stores.
Customers who believe they may have purchased a bowl from any of the listed Petco stores should contact the store for more information.
The recalled bowls were sent to 11 stores in Illinois.


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Vickey Lalwani | Mumbai Mirror | Updated: Apr 1, 2014, 10:21 IST
No Christmas cheer for Karan Johar and Sanjay Leela Bhansali
A few days ago, Karan took to Twitter to announce the news. Last night, trade analyst Komal Nahta took to the same micro-blogging website to announce that Sanjay Leela Bhansali too has decided to release his ambitious venture Bajirao Mastani on Christmas Day, 2015.
READ: After Deepika, Ranveer Singh is finalised for 'Shuddhi'
Bollywood is in store for a box office clash of the titans this Christmas too with the planned arrival of Rajkumar Hirani’s P.K. and Anurag Basu’s Bombay Velvet. And it seems like next year too will see a battle for the prime slot.
Trade-analyst Taran Adarsh said, “It’s Christmas week, but I do not approve of such a clash even during Diwali. Last time the big clash between Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Son Of Sardar created lot of bitterness between Ajay Devgn and Aditya Chopra’s camps. Even the business was divided.”
The news has sent shock waves in the industry. A senior filmmaker (on request of anonymity) told Mirror, “Two big films releasing on the same date is bad news. But I think that only one of them will hit the theatres on Christmas next year. Both films have not even gone on floors, how can dates be finalised so emphatically.”
READ: Deepika chooses Karan JOhar over Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Meanwhile, Mirror has it that Rajkumar Hirani and Anurag Basu too have been in talks to resolve the issue of the shared release date.
WATCH: Karan Johar in conversation with Sanjay Leela Bhansali on 'Koffee With Karan'


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South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper says — as noted by “CNET” — that Apple plans to launch the next generation of iPhone in October.
The publication quotes the head of human resources at Foxconn’s Taiyuan factory, who said the Northern China factory is hiring lots of new employees to prepare for the next iPhone. Of course, you should take this with a grain of salt. Previous rumors have placed the “iPhone 5” debut in the June-July time frame. Read more at http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57411182-37/new-iphone-to-debut-in-october-foxconn-employee-says/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title .


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Even after the pandemic slows and our lifestyles begin a new normal, the dining experience in restaurants will remain forever changed. The same goes for the restaurants of The Vista.
When it opens this spring, The Vista will feature three dining venues. Waterstone is a full-service, fine-dining experience, while Gallery Café is a more casual option. Both will offer outdoor dining. In addition, The Windmill focuses on pub fare and take-out options.
“As construction of The Vista itself progresses, so too does the evolution of the community’s dining program,” says Schelley Hollyday, principal of Hollyday Group, a company solely focused on senior-living hospitality. The group is charged with creating The Vista’s culinary program and dining precautions to ensure resident and staff health and safety. “We’re creating and researching ways to ensure safe, communal dining in The Vista’s venues, along with changes that will stay permanent even after the pandemic comes to an end.”
Ms. Hollyday, who has more than 30 years’ experience in senior-living hospitality, outlines both temporary and permanent changes to the dining program to ensure health and safety.
Social distancing – Our restaurants are being reconfigured from original plans to allow for social distancing. Over time, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the New Jersey Department of Health, and industry best-practice guidance dictates, tables will shift back to normal and seating capacity will be increased. The Windmill’s bar seating will be temporarily prohibited.
Digital or single-use menus – At opening, menus will be available via single-use paper menus, a dedicated Vista app on a smartphone, or on our website. In time, we’ll be able to revert back to traditional menus (part of a true dining experience), while still offering online menu viewing, if preferred.
Al fresco dining – While the Vista always planned for outdoor dining, we’re increasing distance between tables. Over time, tables will shift back to traditional spacing.
Safe servers and food preparation – The entire dining team will be masked, gloved, and trained on safe practices. Residents and guests must wear face coverings that can be removed when at the table.
Online reservations – The pandemic has forced many restaurants to set up simple reservation systems. We’ve created such a system and will continue to use it even once the pandemic subsides. Residents will enjoy preferred dining times and locations on a rotating basis.
Meal delivery – To optimize safety, residents may request meal deliveries to their apartment homes.
HVAC ionization – In addition to brand-new HVAC systems that use fresh air from the outside (not recycled interior air), an ionization feature will help disinfect surfaces in common areas. The process not only kills coronaviruses, but also bacteria, mold, dust mites, pet dander, and organic compounds.
Ultraviolet robot cleaner – We’re considering a remote-control ultraviolet robot cleaner that acts as a complement to HVAC ionization. This robot cleaner can disinfect dining areas without a person needing to enter.
New and better cleaning products, used more often – We’re increasing cleaning of dining areas, and using only products certified to kill coronaviruses.
“Restaurants across the country have been challenged unlike ever before in this pandemic, and senior-living restaurants are, in many ways, no different,” says Ms. Hollyday. “At The Vista, the entire culinary team has stepped up to create amazing dining experiences both during and after the pandemic, paired with a dining program focused on flexibility, quality ingredients, and engaging menus. We can’t wait to open the doors to residents.”
If you would like to learn more about dining or any other element of life at The Vista, please contact us to speak with a Residency Counselor.


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In the 2022 Epica Awards there were Grand Prix winners from Germany, Norway, India, the United States, Canada and Brazil.
The Grand Prix debate took place this year at The Groucho Club in London, in partnership with production company Papaya Films.
The president of the jury was David Griner, former international editor of Adweek and co-founder of the non-profit Creative Ladder, which aims to bring more diversity to the industry.
• Responsibility: “Anti Look – the life-saving QR design”, Scholz and Friends (Germany), Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe
• PR: “The Name Catalogue,” TRY (Norway), IKEA
• PR: “The Missing Chapter”, Leo Burnett (India), Procter & Gamble
• Innovation: “Touch Card”, McCann New York (US), Mastercard
• Digital: “Ketchup A.I”, Rethink (Canada), Kraft Heinz
• Media: “The Pirate Match”, Mirum Agency (Brazil), DirectvGo
• Film: The Spider and the Window, Leo Burnett (Germany), Samsung Electronics
Network of the Year was awarded to McCann Worldgroup, while Agency of the Year was awarded to Rethink, Canada.
The Norwegian agency Try also performed exceptionally this year, making it the runner-up for Agency of the Year, followed by Germany’s Scholz and Friends.
“The Missing Chapter”, from Leo Burnett India and P&G, educates young girls about menstruation in a country where the subject is often taboo; and “The Name Catalogue”, from Tty and Ikea, inspires parents in search of baby names with the help of names from the brand’s furniture back-catalogue.
In a joint statement, Leo Burnett India commented, “Thank you for this honour. We will continue to fight for the future of millions of India’s girls.”
Egil Pay, executive creative director at Try, said, “We are truly honoured to accept this Grand Prix with our amazing client, Ikea. To be awarded a Grand Prix by a jury of worldwide journalists is the best Christmas present we could have wished for.”
On the other hand, the jury chose not to award Grand Prix in Print or Design this year. While all the Gold winners had their merits, after some debate the jurors felt that there was not a specific campaign that rose above the others.
The “Touch Card” initiative enables the blind and partially sighted to distinguish between different payment cards thanks to a series of notches in the plastic.
Alex Lopez, global chief creative officer of McCann Worldgroup, said, “This recognition from the journalists who cover our business every day reflects the contributions of our teams and agencies from across our global network and results from the trust our clients invest in us to help them build their brands and businesses. Our goal is to be the leader in the business of creativity, not for the purpose of winning awards, but to help our clients earn a meaningful role in people’s lives. I want to congratulate our team in New York, and our Mastercard client, on earning this very special Innovation award.”
“The Pirate Match” operation steered online viewers trying to illegally stream major soccer matches to fake, clumsy (and very funny) pirate matches, encouraging them to pay for the genuine article.
“Ketchup A.I.” is the latest in a series of smart campaigns for Kraft Heinz. This time around, the agency discovered that asking an artificial intelligence to draw a ketchup bottle invariably results in one that looks like the iconic Heinz bottle. (The jury tested the theory live during the meeting, with the same result.)
Zachary Bautista, creative director, and Geoff Baillie, associate creative director at Rethink commented, “Heinz has been an icon for over 150 years and to ensure they remain relevant into the future, we’re always looking to move at the pace of culture. There's a lot of buzz around artificial intelligence and for Heinz A.I. Ketchup, we saw an opportunity to join the conversation – proving that just like people, when AI thinks of ketchup it thinks of Heinz. It was great to use this new tool to push a big creative idea forward and it's an honour to have those efforts be recognized by the Epica Awards and the worldwide press.”
“Anti Look, the life-saving QR design” from Scholz and Friends (Germany) was for first responders Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe. When people pause at the site of an accident to take pictures with their phone, a QR design on emergency vehicles and uniforms activates a message warning the gawkers that they are cluttering the area and may prevent rescuers from saving a life.
Ramona Junggeburth and Christoph Schlossnikel, creative directors at Scholz and Friends, said, “We are overwhelmed by the Grand Prix! When we realized the project, we expected practically no public reaction. We can tell you: as creatives, working in advertising, it’s unusual to get so much positive feedback. And, even more importantly, by so many rescue forces, they feel supported in their everyday work. So finally it does not just work from advertisers for advertisers but has a real-life impact, which is really nice.”
The Spider and the Window is an amusing and heartwarming film that uses convincing special effects to tell the story of a large spider who falls in love with a Samsung phone due to the device’s distinctive camera lenses, which resemble the spider’s eyes.
Summing up the competition, Wojciech Skiba, executive producer at sponsor Papaya Films, said, “If you are passionate about craft and creativity, you really want to be a part of the Epica Awards. It’s a truly egalitarian space for inspiration, where diversity can thrive. At Papaya we were excited to support the journalists in this process that not only champions the best creative work but also creates a platform to drive change together.”
Germany was top in the country rankings with 61 awarded projects including two Grand Prix and 10 Golds, followed by Canada with 45 awarded projects including one Grand Prix and five Golds. Completing the top five were the US with 19 prizes, the UK and Norway. The full list of winners can be found here.


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Passengers were outraged — outraged! — that their ships had operated even with a hurricane approaching in late October.
One guest, who had just disembarked from a Disney cruise, was livid. “The pools on the upper decks were closed the entire time and the fine dining down below was canceled because of the excessive motion from the extremely rough seas,” she reported.
The sailing should have been canceled, according to her and one other passenger on the same cruise. Instead, Disney offered its seasick customers a 25 percent discount off a future voyage.
Absurdly high expectations — that pretty much summarizes the ridiculousness of cruising in the 21st century. Theirs and ours.
I’m taking one last swing at each segment of the travel industry on this column’s farewell tour, and today it’s cruising’s turn.
On the face of it, the passenger demands to cancel a cruise with an incoming hurricane, and the complaints about a measly 25 percent discount seem perfectly reasonable. But they are not.
A cruise is, by definition, a journey on the ocean. The ocean can be unpredictable, even dangerous. So these people who are complaining — they booked their vacation during the Atlantic hurricane season. What were they expecting, a river cruise?
Disney would never take a $500 million ship for a joyride in a Category 1 hurricane, not just because it cares about the safety of its passengers (which I’m sure it does), but also because it doesn’t want to lose a ship that cost more than half a billion dollars.
At the same time, there are powerful forces pushing any cruise line to sail on schedule, if it can safely do so. Chief among them: all the passengers that will whine if they don’t run the cruise, “ruining” their vacation of a lifetime.
You just can’t win.
But there’s plenty of stupidity to go around. Cruise lines have an unsustainable business model, which is based on registering their ships in countries with zero standards, paying their third-world crew substandard wages, evading American taxes, charging artificially low cruise fares and then making up the difference with “gotcha” fees and extras.
I know that was a lot to absorb. But believe me, I’ve been following this business for long enough that you just have to take my word for it. The cruise industry is the proverbial ship of fools, whether you’re buying or selling. (Travel agents, can I hear an “amen”?)
I’m not going to waste your time reviewing the evidence that cruising is an unsustainable, if not irresponsible, vacation activity, propped up by bad tax laws, overpaid lobbyists and our insatiable appetite to get something for nothing.
Instead, let’s focus on the solution.
We need to lower our expectations. What do I mean by that? If you own shares in a cruise line, those 40 percent gross profit margins are a dangerous fantasy. Cruise lines will do whatever they can to squeeze every last dollar out of their employees and passengers while bending every government rule and regulation standing in their way. That must end.
And passengers? Didn’t your momma ever tell you that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t?
What do you call cruising the Caribbean at $49 a day, all meals included? There’s no win-win when prices are so low — someone pays for the nonsense. And if you don’t believe me, then strike up a conversation with one of the deckhands or cabin attendants on your next cruise and ask them about their standard of living.
When it comes to cruising, it’s not a question of what is ridiculous. It’s more a question of what’s not?


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Maruti Suzuki has announced Q1 (April-June) FY 2019-20 results. And it doesn’t look great. Caught in a quagmire of slowdown, sales have been a challenge these last three months. For the period, the company has sold 402,594 vehicles. This accounts for 17.9 sales decline compared to the same period previous year.
Domestic market sales stood at 374,481 units. This accounts for 19.3 percent sales decline. Certainly a matter that’s gotten a lot of eyeballs since MSIL not only dominates domestic sales, it also hasn’t had such a poor quarter showing in years now. Q1 (April-June) FY 2019-20 exports are reported at 28,113 units.
The slowdown is compared to base sales of 490,479 vehicles during Q1 (April-June) FY 2018-19. At the time, sales growth of 24.3 percent was reported. Domestic market sales for the said three months last year was reported at 463,840 units. Exports were reported at 26,639 units.
For the quarter, the company has registered net sales of Rs. 187,352 million. Down 14.1 percent compared to the same period previous year. Net profit for the quarter is announced at Rs 14,355 million, lower by 27.3 percent compared to the same period previous year. The poor showing is attributed lower sales volume, and higher depreciation expenses.
With total car sales at 402,594 units, total earning from sales stood at Rs. 187,352 million. This translates into earning Rs 4.65 lakh on average for every car sold during the quarter. Similarly, net profits stood at Rs 14,355 million which means Maruti earned a profit of Rs 35,600 on average for every car sold in the said quarter.
MSILs performance though isn’t altogether surprising. The Indian auto industry has been tackling troubled waters almost all year now. To attain some sense of normalcy, the automaker has been continuously working on promotions. This has resulted in higher sales promotion expenses. Add to this depreciation, and low production capacity utilisation, and financial performance has waned.
In order to mitigate some of the losses, MSIL did reduce advertisement expenses, and made cost reduction efforts. Some advantage was gained from favourable commodity prices, and exchanges.
To boost sales, Maruti has planned new car launches. Next month, Maruti will launch Ertiga based XL6 premium MPV via Nexa dealers which will help increase profits. Later in November, Maruti will launch S-Presso mini SUV in the Rs 4 lakh range. This will help increase sales and market share around the Diwali 2019 period.


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It’s been a rough few years for BlackBerry but now the company has announced that they are working on a new wearable device.
Could this new wearable device signify a comeback for BlackBerry?
Stranger things have happened….
According to the CEO of the struggling company John Chen, plans are being made to release a smart watch and smart glasses.
“I would love to have BBM on a wearable. It’s definitely an area of research for us,” stated Chen when asked about the potential new product.
Wearables are now becoming a trend in the tech industry with Apple just releasing their new iWatch and many other companies following suit.
While no further details on the device has been released from BlackBerry, the company has been pushing it’s strategy to appeal to current market trends.


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North American acrylic sheet leader Plaskolite LLC has acquired the continuous cast acrylic sheet business of Lucite International Inc. for an undisclosed price.
The deal includes general-purpose sheet, sanitary ware, spa and bath sheet and a manufacturing plant covering almost 94,000 square feet in Memphis, Tenn. Plaskolite and Lucite “have had a significant ongoing relationship” for 40 years, officials with Plaskolite in Columbus, Ohio, said in a Feb. 12 news release.
In a Feb. 15 phone interview, Plaskolite President and CEO Mitchell Grindley said that the acquisition will make Plaskolite the world's only acrylic sheet maker capable of making cast, extruded and continuous cast sheet.
He added that the Memphis plant employs 120 and that Plaskolite previously hadn't made or competed in the type of sheet products made there.
Plaskolite is Lucite's largest acrylic monomer customer. Lucite had been owned by Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. of Tokyo.
“With this acquisition we have taken another step forward in our leadership position while building on our long-term commitment to our American work force and facilities,” Grindley added in the release.
The acquisition will give Plaskolite a total of 800 employees at locations in Ohio, Texas, California, Mississippi, Tennessee and Mexico.
Plaskolite's sheet products are used in a wide variety of applications including windows, doors, lighting, signs, point-of-purchase displays and bath products. The firm's customers include distributors, OEMs and retailers.
The Lucite purchase is Plaskolite's first deal since February 2016, when it acquired the extruded lighting sheet business of Rotuba Extruders Inc., and its fourth deal overall since 2012.
Plaskolite ranked 25th in Plastics News' most recent ranking of North American film and sheet makers with annual sales of $340 million.


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A report this morning of gamesindustry.biz states that sources close to the company revealed that Microsoft is considering a launch of the next Xbox by mid-2005. In fact, the report states that internal schedules at Microsoft as recently as last November called for the Xbox 2 to be launched in time for Christmas 2004.
A number of key developers, whose names are being withheld for legal reasons, have stated that the company suggested that the new hardware would be in shops for Christmas 2004 when they revealed the outline specification for Xbox 2 late last year.
The date, which has now slipped to mid-2005, is still ahead of the Christmas 2005 release anticipated by most within the industry.
“I think they underestimated how hard it was going to be to build a console that wasn’t using PC architecture,” one source stated. “But they’re racing to get to the market as soon as possible – they really want to reverse the head start that Sony had last time.”
A mid-2005 release of Microsoft’s next console would give the company a year’s head start on Sony’s PS3. That time frame may even be expanded as some industry insiders expect Sony to delay the release of the PS3 in order to give more time in the spotlight to their upcoming handheld device, the PSP.
Backing up the claims of an early release, Microsoft is believed to be encouraging developers to move to next generation development ahead of schedule. This in contrast to Sony’s lack of eagerness to launch a next-generation console as few if any companies have moved their PS2 teams onto PS3 projects as yet.
With the console wars hitting an all-time high, the opportunity for exclusivity in the next-gen market may prove to tempting for the big M-machine too resist and a release in mid-2005 would seem to provide a distinct market advantage.
Hopefully we’ll learn much more on the console itself and when Microsoft plans to release the next Xbox at this year’s E3.


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IRS Reporting Change Delayed Until 2023
When passed in 2021, the American Rescue Plan introduced a revision to its reporting threshold for third-party settlement organizations (TPSOs) that was set to take effect for this tax filing season. Currently, TPSOs like Paypal and Venmo are not on the hook for reporting third-party network transactions unless the reporting amount is greater than $20,000 and the number of transactions with that payee is greater than 200. The American Rescue Plan lowered that reporting threshold for TPSOs to $600–which left small business owners and their accounting teams scrambling. The provision didn’t give businesses a lot of time to prepare for these unexpected new tax rules and forms. There was fear among business owners that they’d make reporting errors that could trigger IRS audits.
The one-year delay comes as welcome news to business owners and TPSOs. TPSOs will now have to report transactions greater than $600 that happen after the 2022 calendar year. According to the IRS website, “The transition period is intended to facilitate an orderly transition for TPSO tax compliance, as well as individual payee compliance with income tax reporting. A participating payee, in the case of a third-party network transaction, is any person who accepts payment from a third-party settlement organization for a business transaction.”
Now that it’s 2023, it’s more important than ever for small businesses to stay on top of their books. When the 2023 tax filing season rolls around in a year, they’ll need to be prepared for an increase in the amount of Form 1099-Ks they will be receiving. For those unfamiliar with this particular tax form, a Form 1099-K “includes the gross amount of all payment transactions. You may receive a Form 1099-K from each payment settlement entity from which you received payments in settlement of reportable payment transactions. A reportable payment transaction is defined as a payment card transaction or a third-party network transaction. A third party network transaction may include a payment through a payment app.” If you are a small business owner that utilizes third-party apps to do business, expect a lot more of these forms to be coming your way next year. Maintaining up-to-date records of your transactions now is critical in making sure your business earnings are appropriately tracked so you can pay the right amount of taxes come next year.
At ARF Financial, we always have our ears to the ground on the latest information for small business owners–especially when it comes to finances. Stop back to the Financial Pantry every week for more news and advice on how to make your business a success in 2023 and beyond.


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For a while now, reports of Apple bringing together both the Touch ID and the Face ID into an iPhone have been doing the rounds. A study from Bloomberg, released earlier this month, said that both of these biometric authentication features could come with the 2021 iPhones. Now, this has also been verified by a recent WSJ article, so it is likely that the iPhones we see this year will see the Touch ID joining the Face ID.
Apple was granted a patent covering on-screen Touch ID in September last year. But as patents stand, there are many that Apple holds that cover this technology, especially dating back to 2016, but we haven’t seen the tech giant based in Cupertino really putting them to use yet. Reports say that 2021 may be the year in which the Touch ID and the Face ID under-display come to iPhones together.
Also read: 5 Best Popular Posts Plugins For WordPress
This was prompted in mid-January by the Bloomberg report, which quoted Apple developers and confirmed that Apple was testing the on-screen Touch ID in this year’s iPhones. Nevertheless, the study indicated that it was uncertain if the feature would end up making it to the production version of the equipment.
WSJ’s report cites two former Apple employees who stated that the company was “working on in-screen fingerprint technology and considered including both Touch ID and Face ID within the same device.”
Apple is not set to make any major changes to the iPhone lineup this year, with Touch ID and Face ID being the most major improvement. It also means that the world is still going through a pandemic and trying to wear masks, and the Touch ID makes life much easier.
Some other sources indicated that, for the first time this year, Apple would drop the Lightning port, but this remains to be seen.


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The Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA) welcomes GM Holden leadership in sharing vehicle repair information with independent workshop operators.
The Agreement on Access to Service and Repair Information for Motor Vehicles – signed by five key automotive industry and consumer groups in December 2014 – set requirements for the type of information to be made accessible to independent repairers.
Parties to the agreement are the AAAA, Australian Automobile Association, Australian Automotive Dealer Association, Australian Motor Industry Federation and the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
The agreement provides for access to all information required for the diagnosis, body repair, servicing, inspection, periodic monitoring, and reinitialising of the vehicle, in line with the service and repair information manufacturers provide their authorised dealers and repairers. Independent workshops are required to pay a reasonable fee to access this data.
AAAA Executive Director Stuart Charity said the Association recognises GM Holden leadership in the Australian market with respect to its action to share repair and service information. “By opening access for all Australian repairers to the AC Delco Technical Delivery System, which is now populated with Australian vehicle specific content, GM Holden has taken a big step forward,” said Stuart Charity.
“Since 2009, AAAA has led the drive to create a level playing field for the service and repair sector. The 2011 Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council (CCAAC) report recommended that the industry develop a code of conduct for data sharing. Bruce Billson, the former Federal Minister for Small Business, facilitated the challenging negotiations between the parties.
“AAAA hopes that GM Holden’s initiative creates a precedent that will be followed by all car companies operating in Australia. This will achieve our aim to ensure all Australian vehicle owners retain their right to choose who repairs their vehicle – a dealer or an independent workshop.
“AAAA acknowledges that Toyota/Lexus, Ford, Audi/Skoda, Jaguar/Land Rover and BMW have also made some technical information available. But their current efforts all fall well short of what is required under the industry Heads of Agreement.
“Together with GM Holden there are now nine car brands out of the 68 sold in Australia offering some level of data access. That leaves a long way to go in ensuring competition and choice for all car owners,” said Stuart Charity.
Regulation Still a Real Option
All multi-national car companies operating in Australia already make data available to independent workshops in their European and North American markets and are members of the FCAI. Car companies have had nine months since signing the voluntary agreement to deliver effective access to this data.
Stuart Charity said all brands must quickly follow Holden’s lead to demonstrate that a voluntary agreement will work. “The Heads of Agreement set a 12 month timeline to review whether it has had a meaningful impact on the availability of repair and service information,” he said.
“If this does not occur as a result of this voluntary process, we will advocate strongly for the Federal Government to introduce a mandatory solution, as has been done in Europe and the USA.
“The time is ticking for all car companies selling vehicles in Australia to comply with the full requirements of the Heads of Agreement by December 2015.
“To fairly and comprehensively monitor how well vehicle makers meet their obligations under the Heads of Agreement, AAAA has launched an online Incident Reporting Portal.
“The AAAA encourages independent workshops to contribute their data accessing experiences – both positive and negative,” said Stuart Charity.
The Incident Reporting Portal questionnaire can be used as often as required and takes only moments to complete. CLICK HERE to report an incident.


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Posts Tagged «apple»
Apple hires more audio experts – is an offline Siri on the way? December 9, 2014 at 10:12 am
With Siri and CarPlay being sold as high-profile features of Apple’s flagship product, it’s no surprise that Cupertino is doubling down on me research and development. Over the last few months, Apple has quietly hired multiple notable audio experts, and that leads me to believe that we’re in for some serious audio processing improvements in the next couple of years. Is an offline version of Siri in the works, or is Apple working on something even bigger?
Foxconn’s robotic workforce isn’t precise enough to assemble iPhones December 8, 2014 at 4:55 pm
Foxconn wants to start replacing some of its human workers with robots, but Apple isn’t happy with the accuracy of its first-generation assembly bots. The humans win this round.
Firefox for iOS is coming, but it’s not what you think December 5, 2014 at 5:03 pm
Mozilla dabbled on Apple’s platform a few years back with an app dubbed “Firefox Home,” but the company has largely shied away from iOS due to Apple’s restrictions surrounding rendering engines. Now, Mozilla is changing course, and bringing a version of Firefox to iOS running WebKit.
Your next iPhone might use motors, thrusters to prevent screen-cracking falls December 3, 2014 at 9:07 am
You know that weird quirk of physics where toast and iPhones always fall face down? Well, I have good news: Your next iPhone might have the ability to change its angle mid-fall, so that it lands on its side or back, saving the brittle glass display. Apple is researching a whole host of weird and wonderful ways of correcting the trajectory of a free falling smartphone — such as using the phone’s vibration motor to change the fall angle slightly, or mall canisters of compressed gas to act as retro thrusters that can slow the descent.
High-resolution audio: Is 2015 the year it takes off? November 19, 2014 at 12:46 pm
High-resolution audio: It’s finally hitting our smartphones and audio devices, and a number of download services are offering it, but is it ready for prime time?
Nokia N1: An iPad Mini clone that runs Android 5.0, priced at just $250 November 18, 2014 at 8:35 am
What looks like Apple’s iPad Mini, but has better specs, is considerably cheaper, and runs a stock version of Android 5.0 Lollipop? The new Nokia N1 tablet, apparently. At just $250 with 32GB of storage — as opposed to the iPad Mini 3’s base price of $400 for the 16GB model — the Nokia N1 is definitely priced to sell.
Court filings allege Apple mismanagement drove sapphire company into ground November 10, 2014 at 3:56 pm
A new briefing from Apple’s bankrupt sapphire supplier sheds light on why the company folded — and it’s not kind to Apple.
PowerVR Series7 GPU unveiled: Bringing desktop-class graphics to the mobile masses November 10, 2014 at 10:27 am
Imagination Technologies has detailed its next-gen PowerVR Series7 GPUs — and boy are they beastly. Imagination is claiming a performance boost of 60% over its Series6 GPUs, clock for clock, which for a single generational leap is pretty darn impressive. The top-end Series7XT GT7900 will feature 16 clusters, for a total of 512 ALUs and peak theoretical performance above 1 teraflop — or around the same as an Nvidia GTX 750.
Analyzing the iMac 5K Retina display: How do you get 5K @ 60Hz from a last-gen GPU? (updated) November 4, 2014 at 1:55 pm
Apple’s new 5K iMac is something of a puzzle – as is the resolution the display runs at. How’s Apple pulling this one off?
Windows 10 is great – but it won’t stop the PC from dying and taking Microsoft with it November 4, 2014 at 12:16 pm
Windows 10 is a lost cause; even in a best-case scenario where Microsoft delivers the finest desktop OS to ever grace humankind, there’s no getting around the found that Windows 10 is an attempt to revivify a slowly dying beast.


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Southwest Idaho Designer Creates ‘IDAFORNIA’ T-Shirts
A southwest Idaho printing company has created a new shirt design that is getting people's attention in the Gem State.
Modern Printers is located in Meridian. Thursday morning (Jan 10) designer Scott Pentzer unveiled the company's latest creation. It's a shirt that joins Idaho and California together into one solid land mass, and is cleverly titled, "IdaFornia."
"It's going viral, and has been really, really weird," said Pentzer, after I contacted him about his new print.
Apparently, the shirts have succeeded in stirring up quite a few Idahoans, according to a story on idahostatesman.com. The idea no doubt comes from the relocation boom of people moving from California to Idaho in recent years, which doesn't gel well with some Idaho residents.
Love em or hate em, the shirts will probably sell very well. Take it from someone who made the exodus east in 2016, Californians who buy them, might want to stick to wearing them around the house.


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It used to be that only concept cars and new vehicles were allowed at auto shows, but the New York auto show has been breaking that mold the past couple of years by allowing used cars. This let Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. show off its used-car certification program last week. Toyota uses the display to sign up holdout dealers and to let customers know dealerships are carrying this line of used vehicles, said Toyota spokesman Wade Hoyt.
OLD CARS, NEW IDEA
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News publishers are trailing behind the rest of the Web when it comes to ad-targeting technology.
Pew’s Research Center for Excellence in Journalism released a study of 22 news sites and found that just three employed “high levels” of targeting technology that delivers ads based on users’ previous online behavior. (Pew defines a high level of targeting as a site with at least 45 percent of the ads showing different ads from one user to the next.) Pew said 15 used “minimal” levels of targeting.
The research employed a curious methodology. Pew’s researchers would visit sites using their regular browser, then re-visit them using a different browser. The findings were based on the researchers’ perceptions of whether or not the ads were targeted. It did not deploy tech like Ghostery that sniffs out whether ad targeters fire pixels in order to target ads.
The study focused on premium digital ads that appear on the homepage or on top of the article, where ad rates are the highest. Additionally, the study found that the tried-and-true banner-ad philosophy that’s been driving online advertising for more than a decade is still the dominant form across these websites. The issue is that there are other tools the study points to — namely, behavioral targeting — that these media outlets aren’t employing to their best use.
It’s no surprise then that Pew found the efficacy of the ads to be low. Perhaps just as important, the study found, “top news websites in the country have had little success getting advertisers from traditional platforms to move online.”
The larger issue for news sites goes beyond the use of off-the-shelf targeting tech. It’s that the data they’re using — people’s reading habits — isn’t all that valuable of a signal compared to others available online. Content consumption is unlikely to trump search and e-commerce behavior anytime soon as a signal for consumer intent.
The Washington Post invests in climate coverage as its team expands to over 30 journalists
The Post's climate team continues to expand as the publisher makes big bets on the beat drawing younger audiences.
Member ExclusiveMedia Buying Briefing: What a tour through Dentsu and Microsoft’s metaverse campus says about the future of digital marketing
Digiday gets a guided tour through Dentsu and Microsoft's metaverse campus, where clients can test out retail concepts or build showrooms in the virtual world.
‘Halloween is when Christmas ends’: A look at publishers’ pre-Black Friday commerce content playbooks
Publishers' Black Friday coverage plans are starting earlier and earlier but commerce teams are evolving to meet the demand.
SponsoredWhy cookie deprecation is deflating performance and inflating costs for advertisers
With the full deprecation of third-party cookies on the horizon, advertisers and publishers are navigating a challenging and quickly evolving landscape. The sunset of the third-party cookie continues as usage and lifetimes fall. Their deprecation is preventing brands from effectively measuring the effectiveness of media campaigns in real-time at highly granular levels. As the industry […]
How social media managers are coping with the Twitter debacle
Twitter – once a stable and trusty workhorse for social media strategists – now resembles the most wildly unpredictable social platform in the marketing arsenal.
‘A big reset in 2023’: After Big Tech’s mass layoffs, job candidates face intense competition
Recruiters report that 'we've never seen a market quite like this' as tens of thousands of employees flood the market.


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recording Stories December 17, 2015
recording Stories October 28, 2015
Google Play Games app adds gameplay recording & sharing features
After adding gameplay recording features to mobile apps alongside its new YouTube Gaming platform launch earlier this month, Google is today updating its Google Play Games app for Android with similar features.
The update will allow users of the Play Games app to quickly hop into gameplay recording with the ability to share their own commentary simultaneously using their device’s front facing camera and microphone.
It’s simple. In the Play Games app, select any game you want to play, then tap the record button. You can capture your gameplay in 720p or 480p, and choose to add video of yourself and commentary via your device’s front facing camera and microphone. When you’re done recording, you can quickly edit and upload your video to YouTube.
Google notes that the feature should come in handy for some of the content creators contributing to the roughly 144 billion minutes of gaming videos and live streams viewed on YouTube each month.
The updated Google Play Games app for Android is rolling out to users in the US and UK starting this week with users in other countries getting access in the near future.
recording Stories July 23, 2015
Kamcord, a popular platform that lets game developers add gameplay recording features to their mobile apps, is today taking its first step into live streaming. The move is a notable one as competitors such as live game streaming service Twitch, now owned by Amazon, move into the mobile space and live streaming apps like Periscope and Meerkat begin to gain traction among users. expand full story
recording Stories September 19, 2013
Last time we checked in with Kamcord, the free SDK that allows developers to easily implement in-game recording functionality in their iOS games, it had just hit 1B videos recorded, announced a brand new user community, and picked up an additional $1M in funding. At the time the company told us it was planning Android support, and today Kamcord becomes the first major platform to make in-game recording available free to Android developers.
Kamcord is today starting to accept signups for its new Android beta through http://kamcord.com/android, and in the coming weeks will make the SDK available to download for anyone.
We spoke with CEO Matt Zitzmann this week who told us all about the company’s plans to break into the Android world after having success on iOS. With next generation Xbox and PlayStation consoles bringing new in-game recording features to the mainstream, Kamcord has the opportunity to be the go-to solution for similar functionality in mobile games, and Android is a big piece of that puzzle. Zitzmann tells us that the company hopes the new Android SDK will help “to more easily drive adoption within Asia” where Android is thriving.
Kamcord’s biggest rival, Everyplay, is yet to introduce Android support for its similar platform, and today’s release of the Kamcord beta for Android could give the company a big jump on its competitor.
CEO of Djinnworks Robert Szeleney, a publisher with over 140 million app downloads across iOS and Android, is excited to bring the Kamcord platform to its Android titles: expand full story


text: A new Minneapolis brand is using fashion to make a socially conscious statement. My Sister sells apparel and jewelry adorned with clever and powerful slogans to bring awareness to the worldwide plight of sex and human trafficking. Examples include “Stop traffic,” “You’re not the boss of me,” and “Sisters before misters.” My Sister is a benefit corporation, a new classification that Minnesota introduced last year. That means that the company has a giving mission indoctrinated into all of its agreements. Every two years, it will partner with two nonprofits, which will receive 6 percent of their gross sales. My Sister products are sold at Roe Wolfe, MartinPatrick3 and mysister.org.


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The rise of streaming services has given viewers more options than ever before and changed how shows are made and viewed. Crackle, Sony’s streaming network, doesn’t get the same amount of attention as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, but it is seeking the same standing as the major online video players, in part by standing apart from them.
According to the latest Nielsen audience report, 40% of homes subscribe to at least one streaming service, while 13% have at least two. However, there is one problem with that, at least according to Crackle executives.
“As many of these consumers migrate to digital networks, they are adopting a subscription model with no advertising,” said Eric Berger, Crackle GM and executive VP of digital networks for Sony Pictures Television.
Last week, Crackle unchained itself from the Digital Content NewFronts—the two-week marathon where web video outlets make their pitch to digital advertisers. In its first official upfront presentation at New York’s Hudson Theatre on April 14, Crackle set its sights squarely on TV advertisers. Execs touted their ability to boost marketers’ traditional TV ads with Crackle’s young, digitally savvy audience, creating more reach and efficiency.
“This year we moved out of the digital advertising presentations because we’re offering the TV buying community a proposition that aligns with [their] interests,” continued Berger, who argued his OTT network offers the “best of both worlds” between linear television and streaming video.
An Over-the-Top Television Network
Crackle started out as a pioneering video-sharing site called Grouper, founded in 2004, before YouTube even existed. Later bought and renamed by Sony, it morphed into a showcase for the studio’s extensive library of film and TV titles. Original content followed much later. Its valuation and programming war chest are a fraction of their larger rivals’, but its model has emerged as an intriguing counterpoint.
Unlike Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, which go out of their way to tell viewers how much they are not like traditional TV, Crackle is now acting very much like a TV network. That’s on purpose.
A recent study of the streaming population by Crackle and Magid & Associates found that 62% prefer connected TV’s as their top viewing choice, which also happens to be the fastest-growing platform for video advertising. To that end, Crackle will launch a new feature called “Always On” that physically combines a linear TV schedule with an on-demand model.
As soon as a viewer launches the new Crackle, a scheduled program will immediately begin playing. Consumers can browse for something else in the newly created channel guide while continuing to watch what’s currently playing. It will debut first on Roku in May before hitting other platforms over the summer.
Jerry Seinfeld was the first major name to team with Crackle; his Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee debuts its sixth season June 4 with future late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah and Seinfeld’s former costar Julia Louis-Dreyfus. “If I was ever going to do something else, I wanted to be part of inventing a new experience for viewers,” Seinfeld said during the upfront presentation.
Now that Crackle is targeting TV money, it is looking to develop more premium, higher-quality programming, something it hasn’t had in abundance during its first few years.
The streaming net ordered its first hour-long scripted drama, the 10-episode The Art of More, with Dennis Quaid and Kate Bosworth attached to star. The drama focuses on the underbelly and surprisingly cutthroat world of premium auction houses. Crackle’s second new series is the stop-motion animated comedy SuperMansion from Seth Green and his Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, producers of Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken. The animated series stars Bryan Cranston as an aging superhero who leads a group of has-been heroes struggling to stay relevant.
“It’s an amazing time for television because the exchange has almost changed entirely between show creators and the audience,” said Green. “The access to the audience is greater than it’s ever been before.”
Crackle is developing another scripted drama, Capo, which centers on a former mobster who gets released from prison. Capo is being produced by Relativity Television and Hollywood Gang Productions.
Crackle is also looking to break into movies, in part by leveraging the Sony library. As previously announced, the streaming service will debut its sequel to David Spade comedy Joe Dirt on July 16 and is also working on a sequel to one of its own movies, Dead Rising:Watchtower.
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KAL CEO picks up Outstanding Service award from ATMIA
KAL CEO Aravinda Korala has won an Outstanding Service award at the ATM Industry Association's (ATMIA) US ATM conference and expo in Las Vegas.
Innovation was the main theme of the ceremony, with the awards recognizing those industry leaders who have made a significant impact on the ATM world in the past year.
The award follows an excellent year for KAL, which culminated with the company adding a large number of new clients from many countries all around the world for its industry-leading ATM software.
"This honor is testament to the hard work we do at KAL to ensure our customers continue to offer their customers a superior ATM experience. I am very pleased our commitment to outstanding service has been recognized at such a prestigious event. Innovation is at the core of what we do and we are confident 2015 will be even more successful than 2014." KAL CEO Aravinda Korala
"One of the joys of my job is honoring deserving individuals such as Aravinda Korala who give a great deal back to the ATM industry and make a significant difference through their outstanding efforts." ATMIA CEO Mike Lee
KAL wins prestigious Queen's Award for Enterprise
International trade has been at the heart of KAL’s business strategy since the beginning. Today KAL has four regional offices and 11 satellite offices and employs professionals from 20 different nations with software certified in more than 30 languages.
Dr Aravinda Korala, founder and CEO of KAL, comments:
“We are honoured to receive this award. It recognises our international commitment, focused on creating ATM software solutions to meet our global clients’ needs. International activity has been and will continue to be the cornerstone of KAL’s business as the preferred provider of ATM software to the world’s leading banks. I’d like to thank everyone at KAL for their ongoing commitment, positivity and dedication. And it goes without saying that we couldn’t have achieved our international success without the support of our fantastic customers worldwide.”
Graham Birse, managing director of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, welcomed KAL’s Queen’s Award for Industry for 2011:
“KAL have long led the way in integrated software for ATMs - which we all depend on for our cash needs. It sounds a simple thing, but it's a vital service backed up by sophisticated software, and their domination of the global market is well attested by this timely award. The economic recovery depends on companies like this who are willing to be bold in export markets. The plaudit is well deserved.”
The award reflects KAL’s remarkable track record with sales to banks in countries such as China, Chile, Thailand, Japan, Hungary, Italy and the US – where it beat global competition to win the contract to supply the giant Citibank with the software system to run thousands of its ATM machines in 28 countries.
For more information about the Queen's Award click here.


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Microsoft has introduced a trial refund system for its digital storefronts. This trial makes Xbox the first console to offer digital refunds.
This refund system has been offered to those on the Xbox Insider Program, which Microsoft uses to preview new changes for it’s Xbox One operating system. Microsoft confirmed its "self-serve refund pilot testing", but has said that there’s nothing further to share at this point in time.
Regardless, in a screenshot that is circulating on Reddit, users of the Windows 10 and Xbox storefronts will be able to request refunds on titles that they’ve played for less than 2 hours, during the first 14 days after sale. This is similar to the process implemented by Steam in June 2015. The current iteration of the system also has a clause allowing Microsoft to deny refunds to those who abuse the system.
In the photo, shared on Reddit, there’s a textbox saying "You’ve spoken, we’ve listened" and that self-service refunds means more "freedom of choice" for players. It’s a bold step forward for Microsoft, but also for developers, who might now see players taking bigger risks, buying more confidently now that they’re backed by "quick, simple" digital refunds.
No word yet on when this will roll out for all players, and even if it will keep the same shape. For now, DLC and season passes are currently unavailable for refunds.


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Sadolin has opened two more color centers in Ntinda and the industrial area in a bid to expand market reach and consolidate its position in the Ugandan market.
The color centers are setup through franchise agreements with local entrepreneurs and Sadolin, to offer experiential shopping for high end customers and will be residence to all Sadolin products and services including decorative paints, automotive paints, and coatings among others.
Speaking at opening of the center at the freedom City Mall today, Mr. Deon Nieuwoudt, AkzoNobel Planning and Execution Manager, said that this was an affirmation of AkzoNobel commitment to the expansion of Sadolin footprint and growth commitment to Uganda through forming up franchise agreements with local entrepreneurs and stimulating the economy through job creation.
“The concept of the color centers aims to extend Sadolin product to customers through experiential shopping and to give local entrepreneurs the opportunity to expand their business frontiers by being part of the Sadolin chain while tapping into our rich expertise. To us, this is a stride in enhancing our customer care, proximity of the Sadolin product as well as partnerships with local entrepreneurs" he said.
Commenting on the new development, the Chairman of Construction and Hardware Dealers Association, Al Hajji Abbas Mutyaba applauded the move saying it would bring a new angle to how trade in the construction industry is viewed.


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Tencent, the Chinese technology conglomerate, has obtained a patent for the inheritance of digital items.
Originally filed in 2019, the patent was picked up by Tencent last week and spotted by video games analyst Daniel Ahmad.
"[It] relates to the inheritance of digital items and assets after a person passes away," Ahmad wrote. "While not fully related to video games, it has sparked discussions online about game accounts / virtual item inheritance."
"The timing is fairly coincidental given Apple recently announced its own digital legacy service that lets users assign an administrator that can access their digital assets after death," Ahmad continued. "Tencent's patent is similar, but allows direct transfer of items if stated in the will."
In particular, the patent relates to "digital asset certificates" - video game licenses, perhaps, if said licenses allowed for such a provision in the future.
Apple's own Digital Legacy service is a little different. Similar to Facebook's ability to set a legacy contact, it allows access to your account in the event of your death, as well as the ability to unlock a particular device.
This is different again from the idea of inheriting someone's Steam library if that person dies and leaves it to you. This is something Eurogamer's former Chris Bratt investigated back in 2017, and - long story short - you can't officially do it, even if there's little to stop you using their logins.
"As we move towards a more digital world, the idea of virtual asset inheritance has become more important among aging netizens who have long standing online / game accounts with many digital items," Ahmad concluded. "Tencent has not announced an actual digital inheritance plan just yet though."
Tencent's influence within the video games industry has grown rapidly over the past few years, with investment in Ubisoft, Epic Games, Remedy, Sumo, Marvelous, Dontnod, Klei, Platinum, Bohemia Interactive, Roblox and Krafton, plus ownership of Funcom, Sharkmob, Riot Games and its own enormous Timi Studios, the developer behind smartphone titans Call of Duty Mobile and Honor of Kings, plus the upcoming Pokémon Unite.


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Ghana’s leading Hair and cosmetics wholesale and retail outlet and proud sponsor of the 2017 Rush Ghana DJ Awards, Xtra Five, has added value to the Best Female DJ of the Year and Best Female Radio DJ of the Year awards with a beauty care prize package worth Ghc5,000 to winners DJ Ohemaa Woyegye and DJ Nyce.
At the presentation of the first of four instalments which would be presented quarterly at the main office of Xtra Five Hair and Cosmetics Center located at Haatso in Accra, Ohemaa Woyegye and DJ Nyce who won Best Female Radio DJ of the Year and Best Female DJ of the Year respectively expressed gratitude to Merqury Republic and Xtra Five for elevating the image of Disc Jockeying in Africa through recognition and rewards for excellence.
In a speech after the short special presentation ceremony, CEO of Xtra Five Cosmetics and Hair, Mr Jerry Andoh congratulated the winners and expressed satisfaction on their partnership with the Ghana DJ Awards. “We have had a very cordial relationship with the organizers of the Rush Ghana DJ Awards and we believe this partnership will last through the coming years”, he added.
At the 5th Annual Ghana DJ Awards held at the Silver Star Tower on May 6, Xtra Five Hair and Cosmetics provided free makeup for tens of ladies to enhance their beauty.


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The question: “How will this artwork look in my dining room?” can now be answered with Monday’s launch of The Etsy House, an interactive experience that allows shoppers to virtually walk through a home decorated with handmade items offered on the online marketplace, Etsy announced in a Monday (Sept. 27) blog post.
The house features true-to-size renderings, as well as 360-degree views of items available for purchase. When visitors hover over selected items, a pop-up provides more details on the product and a link to buy, according to the blog.
The newest augmented reality (AR) experience follows Etsy’s June 2020 release of an AR tool to aid prospective buyers in viewing art, photos and prints in their homes, according to a Tuesday (Sept. 28) report from Retail Dive.
Etsy isn’t the only company harnessing the power of augmented reality. Earlier this month, buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Afterpay partnered with Crocs and JD Sports to offer a two-day virtual shopping experience that allowed shoppers to virtually try on two limited-edition items, as PYMNTS reported.
In addition to The Etsy House, the online retailer has launched several other initiatives aimed at customer retention. Among them is an improved search function using proprietary technology, which allows customers to more easily find what they’re looking for. Another offering will allow sellers to use videos in their product listings to show how an item is made or used.
Etsy also gave sellers access to a “Start Seller” section of the Shop Manager dashboard, providing insight into how they’re performing in various customer service areas, including message response times, shipping speed and five-star ratings. To be deemed a Star Seller, a shop must respond to 95% of messages within 24 hours, ship 95% of orders on time with tracking, have 95% of reviews with five-star ratings and have had at least 10 orders and $300 in sales over the past three months.


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The communications director of the Finnish studio has admitted that despite the large number of people involved, the task of developing the sequel, which has been expected for over a decade, is not so easy…
Thomas Puha, head of communications at Remedy Entertainment, admitted on Twitter that although they do have more than 100 employees working on Alan Wake 2, circumstances have made it a difficult task to get the sequel running on the Northlight engine. The PC port of the game will support path tracing, and players with Nvidia graphics cards will be able to use DLSS 3.5, which will significantly impact the environment.
“I’ll also say that somehow we are getting this game done with about 130 people on average for about four years of development time (this time is a very elastic term, though) for the quality level we got, which is incredible. We are far from first parties’ or other big studios’ resources. Also, this is by far the toughest game to get done in my eight years at Remedy Entertainment. COVID, Remedy is going through the biggest transformation in its twenty-eight-year history, presenting challenges (like many other developers) and many ups and downs. That’s just life. Somehow, we are managing,” Puha wrote.
Epic Games Publishing funded Alan Wake 2, so they’ll be releasing the game (don’t get your hopes up for a physical release: the Finns have said that we’ll only be looking for the adventures of the journalist and FBI detective digitally), albeit with a very minimal delay of just ten days (!), so expect it on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC on October 27 instead of October 17. On PC, Epic Games has made the game available only on the Epic Games Store for presumably a year. It’s still a relatively small team, as 130 employees is not a massive team for an AAA company.
But there is no doubt that Alan Wake 2 is one of the most anticipated games of this year.


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Ubisoft has confirmed that the Assassin’s Creed series will take a break next year, so there won’t be a new game in the series in 2019.
Gamespot caught word from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, who explained…
“On Assassin’s, we had a game [in 2017] and we have one this year, but we are not going to have a full-fledged Assassin’s next year. It’s just because the team were working separately, so we have two games now, one year after the other. But next year you’re not going to have a fully fledged one.”
Asked whether or not there would be a spin-off game introduced next year (presumably similar to the Assassin’s Creed Chronicles titles or maybe a similar game in a separate universe) and Guillemot explained that there will just be DLC for Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey instead, saying…
“What you’ll have is lots of content coming on [Assassin’s Creed Odyssey]. The team really want to give, on a regular basis, some new possibilities for play, so when you get [Odyssey] this year, you’re going to get in for a couple of years, actually.”
“[The time] gave the team the possibility to really bring what they wanted to. The community has been responding very well to it and when I see what we are bringing with Odyssey I know that the community that got back in with Origins will be amazed.”
So far nothing about Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey looks standout. The combat is still a very disjointed bastardization of the Soulsborne games, and the focus this time around seems to be on turning Assassin’s Creed into a miniature Mass Effect style game, with a large focus being on the romance options for the two lead characters.
It’s a dangerous road to take, sacrificing the core elements of what made Assassin’s Creed popular in order to pursue BioWare’s former audience.
Given that the game no longer has a focus on stealth and parkour, and seems to have abandoned its own unique combat system for a janky version of Dark Souls, I’ve already been abandoned as a consumer since Assassin’s Creed: Origins. Nevertheless, you can look for the alternate history fantasy game to launch this fall for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.


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PlayStation Portable owners will have direct access to the online PlayStation Store from next week, Sony has confirmed. Sadly, though, Sony has initially chosen to limit access to gamers from its home turf – Japan – and hasn’t yet announced a timescale for rolling the same level of access out to North America and European PSP …
Anyone else smell PSP Firmware V5.0?
THE PSP IS DEAD
See Mark, nobody but your good self in here. Nobody cares about PSP.
Anyone else care?
- Updated Hidden network packet sniffer in MILLIONS of iPhones, iPads – expert
- Students hack Tesla Model S, make all its doors pop open IN MOTION
- BBC goes offline in MASSIVE COCKUP: Stephen Fry partly muzzled
- PROOF the Apple iPhone 6 rumor mill hype-gasm has reached its logical conclusion
- iPHONE 6 MOUNTAIN: Apple piling up 80 MILLION massive 'Air' Jesus Phones


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RODA supports Love Design - AIRC
LOVE DESIGN, a biennial initiative supporting scientific research has taken place in Milan
from 11 to 13 October 2019.
The event, created by the AIRC Foundation for cancer research and ADI, the Association for Industrial Design, transforms design products donated by major companies in the sector in resources to be allocated to cancer research thanks to the participation of the most sensitive public and close to AIRC.
RODA supported the initiative with its HARP and ORSON design armchairs together with 65 other brands


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Press Release Distribution
May 19, 2014 News
Students Accused of Rape Can Fight Back // Court OKs Suits Against University, Employees, and Female
1 year ago, 108039 views, By Public Interest Law Professor John Banzhaf
With so much attention focused on alleged failures to prosecute students accused of date rape, the problem of universities whose judicial proceedings are unfair to the accused have been largely overlooked
Building MOMENTUM in Cannes: Sennheiser to Sponsor Silent Disco on May 21st at The American Pavilion
1 year ago, 5544 views, By Sennheiser
Wireless Headphone Experience to Feature Sennheiser Artist DJSpeedermike
1 year ago, 2900 views, By Mira Sound Germany
Mira Sound Germany releases on Audio-CD and DVD ‘Greetings Of Love from the Spirit of Woodstock Festival 2013 In Mirapuri, Italy’, Michel Montecrossa’s special collection of 12 Festival Hit Songs.
MotionPoint Named Technology Leader of the Year for International Impact by Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce
1 year ago, 2404 views, By MotionPoint Corporation
MotionPoint Corporation, the worldwide leader in website translation and globalization services, was named one of the 2014 Technology Leaders of the Year in the International Impact category by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.
1 year ago, 2278 views, By Here's Great Ltd
We are delighted to announce the launch or our brand new start up company which delivers an exciting and evolving website, www.HeresGreat.com ! The website was launched this morning and we aim to show people the very best independent operators in three...
1 year ago, 2247 views, By T.H. Baker
This luxury watches collection is added to give new style and status to visitors of our online store and give them a choice of another Swiss luxury brand in affordable price range.
1 year ago, 1802 views, By Arnold Stalk, PhD
Rock-n-Ride for our United States Veterans. Veterans Village & Veterans Village Thrift Store to celebrate anniversaries with a Veterans Motorcycle Run & a FREE rock concert to pay tribute and honor our active duty military and United States Veterans.
Super Ride XII to promote 'Hope In The Stars' via unique pairing of Star Athletes & Cancer Survivors
1 year ago, 1777 views, By Super Ride Organizing Committee
Equestrian Arts Festival announces additional sponsors, details regarding a benefit concert and the launch of its official mobile app
1 year ago, 1552 views, By SJ Publicity
JP Summers' gripping contemporary romance "The Storms That Fated Us" hit #1 on two Amazon best seller lists during it's reign
1 year ago, 1498 views, By Launch TV Network
NYC—Launch TV Network Company, Inc., currently in a binding agreement for acquisitions with Freedom Energy Holdings, Inc., acquires Broadcast rights for Premier Pilot “Gotham” the series. Gotham was nominated for an Emmy for Web Series.
1 year ago, 1466 views, By TRY Williams LLC
Former Basketball Wives Star and Legal Analyst Tanya Young Williams launches a grown-up conversation talk show 'Etc. Etc. Etc.' on Internet Social Video Platform Spreecast on Wednesday, May 21st 2014
1 year ago, 1398 views, By The Pet Professional Guild
The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) is promoting education and a better understanding of canine body language as paramount in reducing the number of dog bites this National Dog Bite Prevention Week, taking place 18 – 24 May, 2014
Internet Entrepreneurship101 for African Americans Practical Methodologies for Achieving In Internet
1 year ago, 1332 views, By Jason A. Moore
Social Advocate and Entrepreneur, Jason Moore Pens New Strategic Book for African American Internet Startups
1 year ago, 1323 views, By Nehita Fine Jewelry
The "Face of Nehita" was launched during an International Business and Cultural Awards event in the United States. The winner, Tateasa Ramsey was crowned the "Face of Nehita".
1 year ago, 1270 views, By TalentPlus
Talentplus secures the Kickstarter Celebrity to Kick-off St. Louis Pridefest at Lumiere Theater
1 year ago, 1239 views, By Free Law Project
Effective immediately RECAP will be operated as a joint project of the Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) and Free Law Project (FLP), with FLP taking the lead on maintaining and developing the system.
Hudson Health Plan Is the First New York State Health Plan to Offer Child Health Plus Renewal Online
1 year ago, 1185 views, By Hudson Health Plan
An Easier Renewal Process Reduces the Risk That Coverage Will Lapse
1 year ago, 1164 views, By The Jimmy Star Show
Singer/Songwriter's Lori Diamond and Fred Abatelli will be guests on The Jimmy Star Show live radio show Wednesday May 28th, 2014 from 3-5 pm ET | 12-2 pm PT at w4cy.com Radio | Visit www.jimmystarshow.com for details
1 year ago, 1148 views, By Child Care Associates
The Board of Directors of Child Care Associates (CCA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Kara D. Waddell as its President/CEO, effective May 19, 2014.
1 year ago, 1133 views, By Princeton Properties
Princeton Properties is planning a June, 2014 grand opening of Princeton Westford Apartment Homes, the area's newest luxury apartment community nestled into a forested preserve in the upscale town of Westford, MA.
1 year ago, 1123 views, By Lekool Inc
Official Closed Beta testing will start on 23 May at 7:00 PM EST
1 year ago, 1122 views, By ACTE A/S
ACTE, the U.K’s specialist wireless Machine to Machine and telemetry electronic component distributor are delighted to introduce the Gemalto M2M Concept Board with an on board, global 3G/2G cellular module.
1 year ago, 1118 views, By MD Now Urgent Care
Cypress Creek is the latest in a long list of urgent care centers that MD Now is opening throughout South Florida.
1 year ago, 1105 views, By Ministry Marketing Solutions
Global Association of High-Achieving Women and The Powerful Women Deliver “How to Thrive in Career, Business and Life” Workshop
1 year ago, 1093 views, By S'Tiare PR Consulting
The Cupboard Inc. will bring sounds of Motown to Indy to celebrate Father's Day
1 year ago, 1089 views, By Danny Blu
Danny Blu and his band The Factory have scheduled a show at the famed New York City venue The Bitter End for May 24th at 8 PM. This show is a warm up prior to the start of his 2014 North American Sanctuary Tour.
1 year ago, 1073 views, By Kenedi Treasure Enterprises
Kenedi and Treasure Bishop, of Bishop’s Daughters and sisters behind the Kenedi Treasure brand of cosmetics and teen celebrity parties, officially launched their latest project in Los Angeles at the Network to Networth event.
1 year ago, 1049 views, By newtips365
Amazon promotional code November 2015 with Amazon coupon codes 2015 deals saving up 90% off ! WE will help you with finding Amazon promotional code November 2015 or any Amazon coupon codes November 2015!
1 year ago, 1026 views, By Phil Borges Productions
"Crazywise" - A filmmaker's quest to find answers for a young man's illness moves him to question Western methods of diagnosis and treatment
1 year ago, 1000 views, By 21st Century Research
Now is the time for veterans to express their opinions and revulsion at the treatment they received from VA hospitals and bureaucracy. They can write and publish real stories and memoirs about their treatment and feelings for free on Amazon Kindle
1 year ago, 996 views, By LiceDoctors
LiceDoctors Head Lice Treatment and Nit Removal Service now makes house calls to a wider geographical area in and around Jacksonville, Florida. The company bases its success on a highly trained staff and efficacious treatment protocol.
Carmell Therapeutics Receives NIH Phase I Grant to develop antimicrobial-eluting bioresorbable bone filler
1 year ago, 993 views, By Carmell Therapeutics Corp.
Carmell Therapeutics, a company that is developing novel products manufactured from blood plasma, which naturally accelerate the healing of injured tissues, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research...
1 year ago, 989 views, By Medical Tourism Association®
Sponsored by Medical Tourism Association®, Global Benefits Association and Taiwan External Trade Development Council, June 26-27, at Taipei International Convention Center
1 year ago, 974 views, By BlogPaws
Social media giant announces winners in annual ceremony on Lake Las Vegas
1 year ago, 968 views, By Hansen Technologies Ltd
Hansen Technologies Limited (ASX: HSN), a global provider of billing and customer care solutions for the Energy, Pay TV, and telecommunications markets, has acquired Banner CIS, the Utilities Billing & Customer Care division of Ventyx.
1 year ago, 920 views, By Little Studio Films
Little Studio Films has launched a Faith Film Division to develop, produce and distribute Faith and Christian content and forges its first alliance with Hungry Fish Media Ministry.
1 year ago, 895 views, By The Compass Church
May 19, 2014 Contact: Samantha Baer, Communications Project Manager, The Compass Church (630) 753-1934 or firstname.lastname@example.org The Compass Church Confirms New Senior Pastor Naperville, IL – After a year-long search, The Compass Church of Naperville...
1 year ago, 886 views, By ZUUL Labs
Southern California startup, ZUUL Labs, aims to contribute to dog rescue awareness and education through its dog-inspired mobile game, Tall Tails, launching on Kickstarter.
1 year ago, 851 views, By The Camp Transformation Center
Dr. Bakhtiar has been helping clients lose weight and get in shape for over 22 years. The 21-Day Detox Challenge has him more excited than ever. “The 21-Day Detox Challenge is like no other.
1 year ago, 843 views, By Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Kappa Iota Zeta Chapter
Atlanta, GA: On, Saturday, May 17th, Kappa Iota Zeta chapter awarded its Marynette Lovejoy Book Scholarships to four deserving scholars.
1 year ago, 842 views, By The Sylvie Collection
Award-winning fine jewelry brand, The Sylvie Collection, will premiere new Vintage Bridal designs as well as debut a line of Stackable Bands during jewelry market week at JCK Luxury in Las Vegas from May 27-June 2, 2014.
1 year ago, 839 views, By Ellet Assets AB
Ellet Assets AB has publicly disclosed its plans to broaden the chain of representative offices in ASEAN/APAC region and build more than 10 new representative offices this year.
1 year ago, 834 views, By Danforth Center
Construction Begins on New $45 Million Addition to its Facility
1 year ago, 831 views, By Penelope
Penelope is adding a new Chesterfield County retail location at the corner of 360 and Hancock Village Drive. The new location is scheduled to open September 2014
1 year ago, 831 views, By Cindy Crawford Garrett Children's books
Cindy Crawford Garrett is excited to announce 50% of any of her books profits to go toward the American Legion until June 30-2014.
1 year ago, 819 views, By IndustrialPR.net
Quality-minded companies nationwide and overseas are outraged to discover their ISO certificates may provide no guarantee of accreditation and thus could be invalid
1 year ago, 817 views, By Fenway Ticket King
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will be performing live at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts in August of 2014. The iconic rock band will be hitting center stage on Saturday, August 30th, 2014 and Sunday, August 31st, 2014.
1 year ago, 817 views, By PersistSEO, LLC
Alpharetta SEO Company, PersistSEO, announced today that Steven Viores has joined the firm to take on the responsibility of business development and managing the growth of nationwide client accounts.
1 year ago, 813 views, By FoodBrats
After Chef Michael Bennett’s fourth cookbook that reached Amazon’s TOP 20 spot we announce the release of his Seventh cookbook: All-Natural SURF Cuisine.
1 year ago, 813 views, By Kallman Worldwide Inc.
“Small companies with big ideas” are able to present their capabilities on the world aerospace stage alongside the most powerful global corporations, thanks to the support from U.S. State Pavilions in the U.S. International Pavilion.


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via EFY PayPal is planning to open a new development centre in Chennai, India, and hire hundreds of technical positions in 2007. The company is on the look out for techno-professional for the new centre.
“The setting up of PayPal’s India Development Centre is validation of India’s front-runner status in the global IT scenario,” said Dayanidhi Maran, union minister for communications and information technology. “The vast knowledge and expertise of Indian technical professionals will help PayPal expand its business, while continuing to provide secure online payment services for millions of Internet customers.”
PayPal vice president and general manager of global product development Raj Sundaresan said the company is now accepting resumes from experienced applicants, who can apply for positions by sending resumes to email@example.com. The PayPal development centre has openings for technical professionals with expertise in product development, software engineering and other IT functions.


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It will provide 24/7 cyber security services to help customers stay one step ahead of evolving cyber threats in the Middle East region.
09 Sep 2018 4:42 PM
Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) is a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries.
09 Sep 2018 4:32 PM
The US retail giant had last month said it completed the acquisition of 77 per cent stake in Flipkart Group.
09 Sep 2018 1:58 PM
The fines cover various parameters and service areas, and all the operators are in the process of making the payment.
09 Sep 2018 1:52 PM


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Turtle trafficking up in Nepal
Kathmandu - Trafficking of turtles to China from Nepal is on the rise, media reports said on Tuesday.
Smugglers have been trafficking turtles, many of them endangered, to the town of Zhangmu, just over the Chinese border north of Kathmandu, according to the Kantipur daily.
Trade in tortoises and turtles is prohibited in Nepal, where many species are facing possible extinction, including the red-crowned roof turtle, the three-striped roof turtle, elongated tortoise, and narrow-headed soft-shell turtle.
Traffickers are thought to catch the turtles in Nepal's plains, before taking them to Kathmandu, from where they are taken to Zhangmu for sale.
"We've been screening goods trucks passing into China more thoroughly to prevent the trafficking," district police chief Basanta Lama said.
Chinese buyers arrive at the border town two days a week to buy tortoises, which are sold for 15 000 rupees ($194) each.
An estimated 50 to 60 animals are sold each week, a local trader was quoted by the report as saying.
Some turtles are valued in China as an aphrodisiac and luxury ingredient, and often served in soup, the report said.


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At the Hackaday SuperConference in November, Sophi Kravitz had the chance to look back on the past year of Hackaday.io, and what a great year it has been. Hackaday.io now has over 178k members who have published 12.6k projects with about 10% of those being collaborative team projects. But the numbers tell just a small story of the vibrant community Hackaday has.
Continue reading “Sophi Kravitz: State of the IO”
We’re not even halfway through January, and already the conference season is upon us. This weekend, Hackaday will be attending Shmoocon at the Hilton in Washington, DC. I’ll be there getting the full report on Russian hackers, reverse engineering, and what the beltway looks like with an ice storm during morning rush hour.
What’s in store for Shmoocon attendees? The schedule looks really cool with talks on something like inline assembly in Python, tools for RF reverse engineering, manufacturing and selling a U2F token, emulating ARM firmware, and so much more. Want to attend Shmoocon? Too bad! Tickets sold out in less than 10 seconds, and we’re totally not going to talk about the BOTS Act at all. If you’re clever you can still pick up a barcode on Craigslist for $300-400, but I wouldn’t recommend that.
As we did last year, Hackaday is going to have a lobbycon with Dunkin Saturday morning at 08:30, although which lobby is still up in the air. Check out the Hackaday Twitter for a few real-time updates. This is a bring-a-hack event, and I’ll be showing off how to add 18dBi of gain to a standard ESP8266 module. Show off what you’re working on and get a donut.
There are only a handful of people who can say they’ve built several successful electronic badges for conferences. Voja Antonic is not just on that list, he’s among the leaders in the field. There are a lot of pressures in this type of design challenge: aesthetics, functionality, and of course manufacturability. If you want to know how to make an exposed-PCB product that will be loved by the user, you need to study Voja’s work on the 2016 Hackaday SuperConference Badge. The badge is completely open, with all the design files, firmware, and a manual on the badge project page.
Between travelling from Belgrade to Pasadena and guiding production of 300 badges across the finish line before the conference deadline Voja took ill. He made it to the conference but without a voice he asked me to give his badge design talk for him. You can check that talk out below but let’s touch briefly on why Voja’s design is so spectacular.
Continue reading “What Makes the Perfect Hardware Badge”
CES is over, and now we can take a step back, distance ourselves from the trade show booths, and figure out where 3D printing will be going over the next year.
The Hype Cycle is a great way to explain trends in fads and technological advances. VR and autonomous cars are very early on the Hype Cycle right now. Smartphones are on the plateau of productivity. 3D printing is head-down in the trough of disillusionment.
For this year’s CES, 3D printing is not even a product category. In fact, the official documentation I found at Prusa’s booth listed their company in the ‘Assistive Technologies’ category. These are dark days for the public perception of 3D printing. The source of this perception can be brilliantly presented in a pair of graphs:
The perception of 3D printing has been tied inexorably to Makerbot. Makerbot presented the only 3D printer on The Colbert Report. Only Makerbot had their 3D printing storefronts featured on CNN. It’s been like this for half a decade, and hopefully things will get better.
This doesn’t mean 3D printing isn’t improving. In fact, it’s the best it’s ever been. CES had the most innovative printers I’ve seen in years. I caught a glimpse of this year’s top-selling printer (and it launches in April). Resin machines are going to be very popular soon. What did CES have to offer? Check it out below.
Continue reading “The 3D printers of CES”
CES 2017 is finally over, but one question has yet to be answered: which Internet of Thing is Best Internet of Thing?
Continue reading “CES2017: Which Internet of Thing is Best Internet of Thing?”
[David Krum] is associate lab director at the Mixed Reality Lab at the Institute for Creative Technologies at USC. That puts him at the intersection of science and engineering: building cool virtual reality (VR) devices, and using science to figure out what works and what doesn’t. He’s been doing VR since 1998, so he’s seen many cool ideas come and go. His lab was at the center of the modern virtual reality explosion. Come watch his talk and see why!
Continue reading “David Krum: The Revolution in Virtual Reality”
Lulzbot is the poster child of the RepRap project. Everything they do is big-O Open. At CES, Lulzbot launched the MOARstruder, a tool head with a 1.2mm nozzle diameter. That pushes a lot of plastic out, allowing for faster print times. This is the same nozzle diameter as the largest E3D Volcano, and from the big prints sitting around the booth, the results are similar: you get faster prints at larger layer heights, and the layer lines become a design feature.
Also announced by Lulzbot this week is the release of Cura 2 (Lulzbot edition), a partnership with the Blender Institute to develop a streamlined version of the best Free 3D modeling software available, and a collaboration with Monkeyprint to develop Free Software for resin-based 3D printing.
Continue reading “CES2017: Lulzbot Has the Best Names for Stuff”


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Euro Dis ups Amselem as int'l TV operations realign
EmptyFollowing the integration of Disney's European program sales and channel distribution operations unveiled this week, newly installed division head Tom Toumazis on Thursday promoted Simon Amselem to senior vp channel distribution across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (HR 2/20).
In a related move, Disney Channels Worldwide also announced the promotion of six executives to manage its continental expansion under Disney Channel Europe head John Hardie.
Amselem will head the integrated channel distribution team and build revenue across Disney's channel brands throughout the region, which includes Disney Channel, Cinemagic, Playhouse Disney and ESPN International.
Amselem, head of Disney Channel France, also will exploit opportunities in VOD, digital terrestrial, Internet and mobile, taking up the London-based post on April 1.
Following its move to basic tier distribution, Disney Channel's footprint has jumped from 14 million to 32 million homes across the continent.
Under Hardie, Disney is creating dedicated regional and management teams to manage the scale of growth.
Michael Cairns has been appointed vp and GM of Disney Channels U.K. and Ireland and will relocate from Sydney, where he is head of Disney Channel Australia.
Discovery Nets Germany channel head Lars Wagner will take over as head of Disney Channel Germany, following the departure of company veteran Michael Kreissl. Helene Etzi has been promoted to vp and GM in France, and Casper Bjorner has been promoted to vp and GM of Disney Channels Scandinavia and emerging markets, overseeing Scandinavia, Poland, the Middle East and South Africa.
Nicolella Gelli becomes vp brand marketing across Europe, and Anna Hill becomes executive director of marketing, Disney Channels EMEA.
Mimi Turner reported from London; Scott Roxborough reported from Cologne, Germany.


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Borders launches electronic book store
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Borders Group Inc. has launched its e-bookstore as it tries to catch up to competitors who have a head start in a small but growing market that’s seen as the future of the book industry.
The company said today that its goal with the new store and e-reader is to take 17 percent of the electronic book market by next July. Amazon has the Kindle e-reader and Barnes & Noble Inc. has the Nook, and all the players are cutting prices to woo buyers.
The Borders store, at ebooks.borders.com, has more than 1.5 million titles and thousands of free ones. The books are in formats such as mobile, PDF and ePub. The Kobo eReader and Aluratek Libre eReader are both for sale on the site and priced under $150. The company said both have sold past expectations, though it didn’t give figures.


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The Warner Bros studio last year shook film industries across the globe when it announced the simultaneous release of its 2021 slate, including ventures like Matrix 4, Dune and Suicide Squad, to release in theatres and on streaming platform HBO Max on the same day.
Following in the Hollywood studio's footsteps, Salman Khan Films is releasing its upcoming venture Radhe simultaneously in theatres worldwide, adhering to the COVID-19 protocol issued by the government, and on ZEE5 with ZEE’s pay-per-view service ZEEPlex and also on all leading DTH operators, i.e., Dish, D2H, Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV.
The Salman Khan-starrer is the first film in India to see a simultaneous release in theatres and on over-the-top (OTT) platform on the same day. It is slated to release on Eid holiday on May 13.
While a Salman Khan Films' spokesperson said that they will support the theatre owners by releasing the film in as many theatres as they can, keeping in line with the rules and protocols laid down by the government, it looks like not many theatres will benefit from this release.
"With cinemas being shut in many states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chhattisgarh, it is highly unlikely that theatres will see any benefit of this. Further, this film will hit only single screens and not multiplexes as they haven’t agreed for this simultaneous release. For multiplexes, this is just like another film going on OTT," said analyst Karan Taurani, Vice-President, Elara Capital.
Limited theatrical release may spell bad news for Radhe as big-budget ventures mint strong revenues at the box office.
Previous Salman Khan ventures including Tiger Zinda Hai and Sultan have grossed Rs 339 crore and Rs 300 crore alone from theatrical revenues.
In addition to restricted theatrical revenues, another challenge is less traction for the pay-per-view model in India.
"TVOD (transactional video on demand) as a model has not picked up well in global markets too with Disney’s Mulan and other large films. Hence, this model is still too nascent for a market like India and one cannot expect any big positive surprises," said Taurani.
The pay per view model may not have picked up in India but film studios and producers have limited options with theatres once again shutting shop due to the coronavirus-led lockdown.
“The ongoing pandemic forced us to innovate. While we all love to catch the latest movies at the nearest theatres, we realised we’d be doing a disservice to Salman’s fans nationwide if we aren’t able to release theatrically in all Indian states. We sensed the need for a pay-per-view solution along with theatres, which gives the consumers flexibility and convenience of viewing the film. We are looking to release the film in over 40 countries including theatrical release in major overseas markets,” said Shariq Patel, CBO, Zee Studios.


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Jordan, Federer U.S. Open Chat Boosts Sales Jordan Talks Federer Shoe Collaboration UA Battles Nike Supremacy With Durant Deal Under Armour Makes Big Offer To Durant Rory, Tiger Promote New Nike Irons On "Tonight Show" Arizona Unveils New Nike Hoops Uniforms NBC Sports To Broadcast Youth Olympic Games Aldridge Finds Endorsements Despite Small Market "Men In Blazers" Leave ESPN For NBC CSN Houston To Be Renamed Root Sports
Upcoming Conferences and Events
OLYMPIC ADS: FROM PEPSI IN THE ANDES TO MCDONALDS IN TIBET
Published June 28, 1996
The TV ad onslaught by Olympic sponsors leading up to and during the Games, is profiled by Jeffrey Scott of the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. Delta, Coca-Cola, Reebok, IBM and AT&T will all unveil new Olympic TV spots over the next six weeks. There will be 20 hours of commercials on NBC's 170-plus hours of Games coverage and companies are giving ad agencies a budget of $500,000 or more per commercial to "produce spots that are memorable and move product." NBC's ad rate for a 30-second spot averages $280,000, with some slots "going for as much as $500,000." Nike began their Olympic-themed ads in March and is centering its $35M summer campaign around Atlanta (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 6/28).


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A Florida shopping center that says Ariel Quiros owes $86,721 in back rent for his now-shuttered Key Biscayne restaurant has received approval to throw him out.
Quiros, facing state and federal investor fraud lawsuits stemming from developments at Jay Peak Resort in Vermont, did not contest the move to clear out his leased space in the shopping center that was home to his restaurant, Lisboa Grill.
Galleria of Key Biscayne Inc., the shopping center’s owner, filed a motion in the federal case against Quiros, seeking to retake the space. A federal judge granted that request recently. The Miami businessman and Jay Peak owner signed a seven-year lease on March 28, 2011, for his restaurant at 328 Crandon Boulevard in Key Biscayne.
The filing said Quiros owes $86,721 in back rent and other expenses. Quiros, according to the filing, agreed to “surrender” his lease and “abandon” any rights he had under it. The rent for the 1,656-square-foot space, according to the 2011 lease, was $7,615 a month. The rate increased 4 percent annually.
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